Au Ptit Bonheur La Chance | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Nice Atmosphere at Ptit Bonheur la Chance

December 28, 2011
bradspurgeon

It was one of the calmest evenings at the open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance in a long time. But it was a very cool one, with a wonderful mix of new and old people – and people who had been there before but when I was not there.

I felt like crap for some reason, but it was mostly because my repertoire is not growing quickly enough and I hate singing the same songs at the same places all the time! But staying at home to learn new songs, takes time and cuts into the fun of performing…. Still, I wrote a song on the metro on the way there, and I will see if it works. So when it was my turn I decided I would NOT sing all the same songs I have always sung, and I realized that if I only know 40 songs by heart, I know just about as many as that of Bob Dylan in partial form – a few verses here and there. So I decided to do an impromptu medley. Complete failure. It seemed the first song I began with would have been the best if I knew all the lyrics – “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.” So it proved to me once again that impromptu does NOT work!!! Keep away from it.

But I particularly enjoyed last night the new song by Kuku, which he had never played in public before. I also particularly enjoyed all three of the songs by Victorine, which were highly animated with her moving all around the room with the mic as Kim and Ollie Joe the MC played music for her. She put everything into it, and it was not so easy to film on the video as she moved around so much – but that made it fun too.

And then there was Kim playing his own stuff and a Neil Young song. His new album, Radio Lee Doo, just came out, and that looks interesting too. This Kim is one of the MCs of the Pop ‘In open mic, but a professional musician all his life, it seems.

Now to top everything off, my fiber optic connection to the internet has decided to be slow as hell so there will not be a full number of videos here for the moment, and I will update later when return from tonight’s open mic….

Three Nights, Three Constrasting Mics

December 15, 2011
bradspurgeon

William Wordsworth came up with a wonderful line and sonnet called, “The world is too much with us.” It may be entirely irrelevant to this post, but that’s sort of how I feel right now as I try to catch up on my blog posts after three days which were a little overflowing with life from nature and otherwise…. Don’t bother trying to piece that together. I just got so swamped in the last three days doing all the things I have been trying to do on my vacation – fixing all three household computers, fixing the kitchen blind, fixing the toilet, fixing the dinner, fixing bodies, fixing meetings, fixing bill payments, fixing bank accounts, fixing video backups, and a few other fixings I cannot even remember – that I only managed to GO to the open mics and not write about them. So now it is time to fix this blog – at least temporarily and in a pithy manner.

Monday night I went to both the Tennessee Bar open mic and the Galway. Once again I went first to the Tennessee and found too many people, so went to the Galway, then returned to the Tennessee. I played some songs at the Galway, but was a little too late and a little too involved in conversation at the Tennessee to get up and play there too. On the other hand, I did managed to take in all of the musicians with interest, and to record some of the more interesting ones as usual.

The Tennessee has a certain downstairs vibe to it that differs greatly from the downstairs vibe of the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic on Tuesdays. Both are places with tiny caves where the open mics take place, both having intimate brick walls – although part of the ones in the Ptit Bonheur are fake plastic bricks – but while the first tends to have people going in little groups that like to talk, and occaisionally listen to the music, while the second almost always has a crowd there to listen reverently to the music. And there is more of a feeling of everyone together at the second, rather than a splitting up into little groups of the first.

Anyway, the crowd was exceptionally not so big at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, but that gave me personally the courage to try some songs I do not usually do. After Thomas Arlo started with a song Elvis did not write but sang, I decided to do the same, even though I had still not memorized the words. So I read very unsuccessfully from my iPhone my “new” song, “Only You.” The Platters.

I then did a song I wrote when I was 22, which has no title; and I did Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” Later I played again, and did Mad World and if memory now serves me correctly, “What’s Up,” going back to the surefire “hits.” But I can’t even remember for sure – after all, that was two days ago!!!

Last night, instead of going to the Highlander, where I go so often on Wednesday nights, I noticed that the once-a-month open mic at the Chansonniers Hotel in Menilmontant is still happening, so I went there. It is usually the third Wednesday of the month, but they advanced it to avoid hassle with the Christmas holidays that start next week.

The Chansonniers is completely different from the other three above mentioned open mics in being, first, primarily attended by French musicians – I was the only one who sang in English, except one French woman who did “Unchained Melody” – and it tends to be an older public as well, from mid-30s to mid-60s. Completely different vibe. But well worth attending to widen one’s experience and audience.

Wow, there we go! I feel liberated having finally got this off my chest…. I hate missing single days on the blog, let alone three of them.

An Open Mic and a Gig

December 8, 2011
bradspurgeon

I cannot believe how snowed under I have become on a vacation!!! I am behind on the blog and I have so much to say and recount over the last couple of nights. But I will not have the time to do it. So I will keep it to a minimal report, just saying that I attended the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic on Tuesday and heard some very interesting musicians as usual, and this time the show was MCd by Rachel, who did one of her nifty ukelele songs at the end. She then handed her uke to Luca who did a very cool number on it too…. And then last night I did my gig at the new and interesting 9b bar on Boulevard de la Villette….

I am very behind, in fact, because I also did my last of all interviews for my open mic film. Because I had travelled all around the world since March I had put off my interviews with organizers and MCs of the Paris open mics. So yesterday I did an interview with Thomas Brun of the Highlander open mic. We did a very cool and complete interview in a neat bar restaurant beside the Cafe de la Gare.

I have been capturing all the video footage into Premiere Pro in the last few days also, and then last night I ran off to the 9b to do the concert. I was the third act, following the delightful Paloma Gil, whose great voice you can hear in the videos on this page. I missed the first act, though, because of all the stuff that had snowed me under. That was the personally genial Raphael Kidd. My own set was a true regale as the French say, meaning a great deal of fun. This was primarily due to a wonderful matchup with Joe Cady of the band the Romantic Black Shirts, whom I had invited to play violin with me, and who decided he also wanted to do lead guitar. And that was inspirational. I want to do it again with Joe!!! We ran through some of my songs, and some of the covers I do a lot, finishing off with an audience request for “I Shall be Released,” which two members of the audience joined me in singing. Wonderful evening!

Bonheur after Paris Landing, Express

December 1, 2011
bradspurgeon

L'Express magazine

Arrived back in Paris on Tuesday morning early, as I think I said before, and spent the day working like a mainiac doing stories to close my year of work. Then I went off to the open mic of the Ptit Bonheur la Chance bar, near the Pantheon. I had a couple of reasons for insisting on going, and one was to show the owner of the bar the page out of l’Express magazine devoted to open mics and in which there was a little story about the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, in which my name was mentioned!

It turned out that he had not seen the magazine. I had picked up a copy of it on my flight back from Brazil, and there was my name. The story also covers places like the Bus Palladium and the Pop In. For some reason I find no trace of it online, or I’d put a link to it. But I was able to find it in the Nexis newspaper database, so here is the bit about the Bonheur and yours truly:

La folie des scènes ouvertes
AUTEUR: Marie Audran
RUBRIQUE: STYLES DE VIE NUITS; Pg. 134 N°. 3151
LONGUEUR: 452 mots
ENCART: De plus en plus de salles invitent le spectateur à pousser la chansonnette ou à faire l’acteur. De quoi réveiller l’artiste qui est en vous et, qui sait ? susciter une vocation !
Au P’tit Bonheur la Chance
Caché dans une ruelle, au pied du Panthéon, c’est le petit bar qui monte. Dans sa cave voûtée, une vingtaine de chanteurs se succèdent, en solo ou en duo, au milieu des spectateurs. Si vous n’osez pas pousser la chansonnette, foncez-y pour découvrir un vivier de talents de toutes les générations, dont Brad Spurgeon (journaliste au New York Times) ou les jeunes membres du groupe pop Apes & Horses, qui y testent leurs futurs tubes. Les mardis à 21 heures. Entrée gratuite.
18, rue Laplace, Paris (Ve), 01-43-54-42-32.

Now for some strange reason, this article did not have the effect of flooding the open mic with three times its regular number of attendees. Quite the opposite. For some reason there were fewer people there on Tuesday than in the last few times I have been, but that made for both more intimacy and more time to play for each performer.

It was great to find some new performers there I had not seen before, too, including the genial Basile, Brice and Bastien – only the first two of whom made up a group, the other being solo here.

And there was the very unusual act of this young French guy doing a song by Love!!! How did he find them?!?!

Sometimes the Travel Catches Up With You – Me

November 16, 2011
bradspurgeon

I’ve been back from Abu Dhabi for more than two days now, although only two full nights. And I have to admit that for once, after such a trip, I’m whacked out of it. I did find the strength to go to two open mics, one on Monday night and one last night. But for once, I don’t quite have the strength to write detailed reports. So I’ll just put down a few main points, and a few videos, to tell the story.

First, it was a pleasure to be bag in Paris and go to the Galway on Monday night, and especially and above all, the Ptit Bonheur la Chance last night. That was the first time I had been there for many weeks, due to all the travel and the illness after India. So I was amazed to see that there had been a massive renewal of people at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance in just a few weeks. It was as crowded and full of musicians as it ever has been – Yaco is keeping the ball rolling – but the majority were new people I had not seen before. There were some wonderful regular faces, though, including a visit by the extraordinary group, Natas Loves You, and I had to record their King Crimson again.

But the most fun thing for me was doing something I had never done before quite like this, which was to accompany my friend Marianne Bp who did her piece “Bombe Lacrymoj’aime“. She’s Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg all in one, since she sings/recites and writes…. I had a real, real fun time doing that one, and hope to do more with her.

I was dissatisfied with my Gibson at the Galway, and felt pretty much bummed out of the whole performance, but I suspect it had to do with the difficulty recovering from the night flight from Abu Dhabi. Just one more trip till the end of the year, Sao Paulo next week. Looking forward to it, and to the post-trip period of life in Paris for a couple of months, grounded in one sport.

End of item for today…. just veg on the vids.

Passing on the Flame at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance

September 28, 2011
bradspurgeon

I have little time today to say much on this blog as I prepare to rush off to the Highlander for the fifth anniversary of one of Paris’s best open mics. But I must get in a word or two about last night’s session at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, which has only been around about a fifth the time of the Highlander, but which immediately established itself as another of Paris’s best open mics. Last night Ollie Fury was back in town after a couple of months or so in Germany – was it only six weeks? – where he has decided to stay for sometime to come. He showed up at his open mic, yes, Ollie started it and MCd it from the beginning, to pass on the flame of the MC job to Yaco Mouchard, (also known as Ollie Joe!), who has been running it for several weeks.

The evening was a warm and cool one – if that is possible – as it usually is. And there were moments of moist-eyed significance in the handoff. There were great moments of music as well, and I have put up a few of the high points on videos below.

Oh, and I was again flattered to find a musician from out of town who had discovered the open mic and others through my blog and thumbnail guide of open mics. That was Hugo Kensdale from Manchester, who brought a new voice to the show.

A Good Night at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, Especially Kuku and Ilan’s Jam

September 14, 2011
bradspurgeon

Ollie Fury, who founded the open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, has moved to Berlin and hence has not run the most successful recent open mic in Paris for several weeks. The job at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance bar has now been taken over by his friend, Ollie Joe…. So if the names are similar, so is the open mic. It was quite a success last night, my first return in a few weeks. A number of the regulars were there, but there were some very interesting new acts, like the American-born Nigeria-raised KUKU, who returned to the U.S. to live many years ago. He is living for a while in Paris, and attending open mics. One of the high points of the evening was when KUKU and Ilan, of Israel, did an impromptu jam, that came out like a real bona fide “world music” vibe.

There was a very nice instrumental by Chardes and Nicolas, and Fabien Fabre presented one of his hit songs about a town in Essex, England.

I am in one of my perpetual rushes, so I cannot write that much more about the evening, and will let the videos do the talking. Unfortunately it is so dark in the bar where the open mic takes place that lighting is always a problem for the videos, and even worse, I was sitting in such a position last night that I had glare off the only light near the performance area.

Stalled Out Between Paris and Belgium

August 26, 2011
bradspurgeon

Suddenly three days appear to have disappeared on the Weblog. No, I have not become a slacker. I did actually attend the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic on Tuesday night, but I had much work to do to prepare for my trip to Belgium – where I write these words – and a slow internet connection here and there. And then there was drive from Paris to Belgium. The result is not a weblog but a backlog. But great stuff at the Ptit Bonheur, and a little letdown and a bit of bonheur in Belgium.

I was particularly happy on Tuesday evening to see my favorite Paris poetess, the wonderful Lisa Marie Guilbot, who writes clever and piercing short poems mostly about love – of one kind or another – and who has a very enticing reading delivery of the poems. She goes to Ollie’s open mic occasionally and it’s always a nice break from the music.

This time Ollie was on holiday and it was Rachel Crocker (it should be “Rocker”) who did the MCing, and who opened with her cool songs accompanying herself on the ukelele. I uploaded a video of her too, but somehow the lousy internet connection meant it did not make it….

The other amazing and wonderful meeting at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance was with Fabien Fabre. I had seen this guy at another open mic several times, and he stands out enormously as he is virtually the only performer who specializes in a weird and wacky humorous singing and songwriting. We spoke for a while and I learned that he is not only an open mic addict, but he is an artist of the bicycle. Fabre makes extraordinary bicycles out of pure materials. Check out his stuff at Fabien Fabre Bicyclettes.

The Musical Story in Liege

Upon arriving in Liege, Belgium yesterday, however, I learned that the jam session I intended to attend at the famous Bouldou bar was not taking place in the summer, and I’m not even sure it will continue. I also learned the terrible news that the Art Cafe closed down. This Art Cafe jam was the open session I had hoped to take part in on Sunday evening, as it was a high point of my musical adventure in Liege last year and the year before.

The Art Cafe ran into the same problem facing such musical venues and bars in so many parts of the world – what is really hurting Paris too – that residents wants cities to be quiet now so bylaws are being written and enforced to cut out live music. And close down the bars and venues if they don’t obey – or the places close down because they cannot afford to do the work needed to make the bars soundproof.

The good part of the whole story was that I did meet up with Raph Charron again. He is the one I speak of in the post on the link above, describing my experience at the Art Cafe last year. Raph and I talked music at Bouldou and then managed to shoot a video interview for my open mic film, with Raph reminiscing on the Art Cafe and talking about the music scene in Liege.

A 30-Hour Day is Too Short From Paris to New York

August 10, 2011
bradspurgeon

I have just arrived in New York City for a week of open mics. With the time difference from Paris to NYC it means I have a 30-hour day today. But it also turns out that is not nearly enough for all I need and want to do. For instance, I would love to give a detailed report of the open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance in Paris last night, but a), I have to run out to my first open mic in NYC, and b) I don’t think the wi-fi in my hotel here is going to be nearly fast enough to upload all the videos I want to upload.

Anyway, it started off being kind of like an oldies night at Ollie’s open mic last night as Ollie sang an oldie, Thomas Arlo sang an oldie, a Frenchwoman named Vanessa sang an oldie, Wayne did to. In fact, it was Jesse Kincaid who mentioned that theme to me early on.

So then I decided to try an oldie too, although it is only a 1990s oldie, called, Runaway Train, by Soul Asylum. I had begun to sing this song two days before… or was it the day before…? An and so my memory had no time to memorize it. But I wanted so desperately to sing it that I decided to read the lyrics on my iPhone. I failed at that, Ollie saw my problem and came and held the iPhone in front of me, I still failed, made a bloody mess of the song, and should know better than trying such a thing. It was a most embarrassing and horrible experience. So what! It was an open mic, after all. (Even though that was TWO bad nights in a row for me…what do I have?)

The other acts were of a pretty high level and the night was full and crowded as usual.

Looking forward to many discoveries here in NYC. Keep posted as I post it… 🙂

PS, yes, my wi-fi connection is far too slow for the uploads, so I will have to wait until later to upload the videos. Bear with me.

Too Late for Ollie’s, Just on Time for the Baroc and Its Live Web TV Show

July 27, 2011
bradspurgeon

I was sure that the summer months would mean Ollie Fury’s open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance would die out a little, so I arrived well after 10 PM. But I was wrong about the popularity of the place dying out. And I paid for it. I had taken a cab to Ollie’s with Vanessa as we decided to pick up where we left off at the Galway and try our songs again. But when we arrived at Ollie’s the place was so packed with singers and spectators that you could not get down the stairs, and worse, there was just no more room for any more performers on the list. I waited until a few cleared out and I took a brief bit of video footage to show how packed the tiny room was. Then we took another cab and headed off to the Baroc bar open mic near Belleville.

We arrived at Le Baroc bar after 11 PM, and while there were a number of musicians there and they were having fun jamming and playing, there was still room for Vanessa and I to try our material again. In fact, we did a total of 25 minutes of stuff, including most importantly the “I’m No Good,” of Amy Winehouse that we learned the day before. I am still horrendously shaky on the guitar playing and had to read it on my cell phone. But Rejean, the MC of the open mic, heard Vanessa’s voice and decided to join us immediately on piano. So it was a nice moment.

What’s really cool is that although I recorded it myself, I had to do all 25 minutes, and I don’t want to cut up the video – no time to edit. But Le Baroc has recently started a new feature of their musical evenings that I am sure is going to catch on all over the place: Web TV. So you can actually watch the evening live on the Internet at the Baroc web TV site, and you can also check out the archive videos. So I have put up a link here to some of our stuff. There are two songs on each of these, and the Amy Winehouse does not open the video, so it could be worth it to fastforward to find it….

The first video in this link contains “Just Like a Woman,” and “I’m No Good.” The second video in this link contains my song “Borderline,” and “What’s Up!” – on which we both sing, and we are later joined by a sax player.